Music notes: Miller time, the sequel

The great thing about writing for online is its immediacy. You can go to a concert and, six days later, post your thoughts and observations.

Actually, I have a semi-valid excuse for taking this long to compile some random notes on Rhett Miller’s show last Wednesday at Sam’s Burger Joint (the review and set list were posted Thursday morning; find them <a href="http://blog.mysanantonio.com/weekender/files/legacy/2008/09/concert_review_miller_time.html"target=new"here). One of my rules is, don’t ignore the opening act, which in this case, was Dallas singer-songwriter Sarah Jaffe. But I wanted to listen to her EP, “Even Born Again” (which her cellist, Kris Youmans, gave me after the show) before writing, and that didn’t happen until yesterday.

Playing a Gibson acoustic-electric guitar and backed only by Youmans’ electric cello, Jaffe turned in a captivating 35-minute set despite lots of sonic competition from the crowd and from outside the building. Motorcycles drowned out some of her first song (nothing goes better with acoustic music than motorcycles revving up), and she had to complete with lots of background chatter.

Those who paid attention were well rewarded. Her second tune featured something I’d never seen from an acoustic performer  she tapped out the melody on the guitar neck with her right hand. (I had to have a real guitarist, Hector Saldaña, explain this to me). I thought only electric guitarists like Eddie Van Halen did the tapping thing.

She had some interesting comments as well, like the time she tried to write a song in French, then went on the Web for a translation and found out “it made no (bleeping) sense.” She also said, “I (bleeping) love San Antonio. I don’t know why; I’ve never been here.”

Her sideman was a striking sight, too. Youmans’ electric cello resembled how a minimalist artist might draw a cello. It had only half the body of a wooden cello. Youmans said after the show that he liked the sound of his electric cello better than the full-bodied wooden version. Since he owns a 160-year-old regular cello, I guess he should know.

One complaint: Jaffe gave the name of only one of her songs  a warm, soulful burner called “Two Intangibles Can’t Be Had” that’s on the EP and reminded me of Lucinda Williams. Performers playing for people unfamiliar with their work do themselves a disservice by not announcing song titles. And although she said she’d be at the merch table after her set, I was unaware she had an EP until Youmans handed me a copy.

And there was an unusual moment: Miller walked in during the middle of her set, coming through a back door that bore the sticker “Door to remain closed when band is playing.” Obviously, he didn’t mean to interrupt; his sheepish look said as much. He crossed the room quickly and headed outside, where (as Hector indicated last week) he was promptly set upon by a contingent of female fans. Unfazed, Jaffe played on.